


What I Did For Love

by DarknessTurnsMeOn



Category: Avengers, Bucky Barnes - Fandom, Marvel
Genre: F/M, Mention of sex and nudity, Mention of sex and nudity but nothing graphic, alternative universe, marvel AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-22
Updated: 2017-09-22
Packaged: 2019-01-04 01:42:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 13,446
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12159015
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarknessTurnsMeOn/pseuds/DarknessTurnsMeOn
Summary: Saudade (Portuguese) - The love that remains after someone is gone. A deep emotional state of nostalgic longing for something or someone you once loved.





	What I Did For Love

**Author's Note:**

> This is my longest work and a total emotional roller-coaster.
> 
> Song of the title : What I Did For Love, Josh Groban

 

“Pwease mommy, pwease, tell me a story !”, Steve shouts from his bed, while I’m picking up his dirty clothes from the floor where he left them.

I turn my head, smiling at my four and a half years old son, his dirty blond hair already tousled, his bright blue eyes sparkling.

“Okay little man, grab your binky and lie down”, I respond to him before taking the clothes to the washing machine in the laundry room. “What story do you want tonight baby ?”, I ask, sitting next to him.

“The baker’s daughter and the pwince !!!”, he answers snuggling into my side.

“You know the beginning of that story by heart sweetie.”

“Pwease mommy, pwease”, he looks at me with those disturbing blue-grey eyes.

“Well, your wishes are my commands, Stevie.”

He brings his [stuffed fox](http://zupimages.net/viewer.php?id=17/35/r9cj.jpg) closer to his chest while I’m leaning against the headboard. I clear my throat and start the story.

_Once upon a time, in the kingdom of Romania, there was a king. A widower king who had only one son. When the prince was ten years old, a new baker arrived at the castle. The baker had a daughter, whom was same age as the prince. It was a pretty girl, with pretty eyes and a beautiful smile. When she first met the prince, she thought he was arrogant and heartless. On his side, the prince thought she was stupid and tried everything to annoy her. Three years passed and someday, the baker’s daughter hear somebody cries. In the course of a corridor she found the prince crying, his back to the wall, his beautiful blue eyes red, sniffing. Even if they were not friends, the girl approached the prince. She was a kindhearted girl, raised well by her mother, so without any rear thoughts she sat next to the prince and put her hand on his._

_“What’s happening to you ?”, she asked him softly._

_“That’s none of your business !”, he harshly answered._

_“I was just trying to be nice”, she told him, getting up._

_As she started to walk, she heard his voice behind her._

_“That’s my mother and brother’s death anniversary.”_

_She turned back to him and from her lips escaped three words : “I’m so sorry.”_

_And then, they sat in the front of a window in an empty room, looking at the rain falling into the garden, dripping on the ceiling to floor windows, sharing their stories, that led them to become friends, the best of friends._

_A few years passed and the baker girl and the prince grew up and started to have strong feelings for each other. When they were old enough for it and completely sure about their love, they wanted to get married, the prince wanted the baker girl to be his princess and someday, his queen when he would become the king of Romania. Unfortunately for the two young lovers, the king had decided another plan for his son. He planned to marry him to a princess, a rich princess. When the prince told his father that he wanted to marry the baker’s daughter, the last answered that it was out of question, that if he was going to do this, he would unprivileged him. The prince said that he didn’t care because, he was so in love with the baker’s daughter that nothing else mattered. So the king thought about a machiavellian plan, sending the baker’s daughter away…_

I stop my story, looking down at Steve who is softly snoring. Each time he wants me to tell him that story, he always falls asleep before I reach the middle of it. Anyways, it suits me, at least, he doesn’t have to hear the way the king chase the baker’s daughter away from the castle and from the kingdom of Romania, he doesn’t have to hear that he demanded to her to lie and to tell the prince that she didn’t love him, that she never did, that she pretended, and he doesn’t have to hear that he gave her money to go away and never ever come back, and to keep a secret, her secret, the secret that she was expecting the prince’s baby. He doesn’t have to see me cry each time I think about it, each time I remember. The only thing that Stevie doesn’t know about this tale is that it’s not a tale, but my story, his story, our story.

I indeed arrived to Romania from England when I was ten, when King George fell in love with my mom’s pastries. He offered her a better place than the one that she had in England, in the restaurant she worked in. Just before King George left London, he proposed to my mom the head of the desserts section of his castle. She accepted right away, making me pack my things to leave a country I grew up in to the unknown. A few days after, we landed in Romania, I barely saw anything on the way to the castle through the black glasses of King George’s limo. He settled us down in a nice little house, in his employees quarters, just outside of the castle. I was the only child there, well at least, the only preteen. King George told my mom that he was willing to let me continue my studies at the same time as his son, whom was same age as me.

This is how I met Bucky, well James, or as he was introduced to me : His Royal Highness Prince James Buchanan Barnes. James was taller than me, and really handsome, even at the age of ten, I could see that. Tall, chestnuts tousled hair, bright blue-grey eyes, absolutely stunning. I already knew since the day before that all the girls of the kingdom were swooning over the young prince’s beauty. I heard a lot about him before even meeting him in flesh and bones. Our first meeting took place a few days after, in the classroom I was supposed to have my lessons with Prince James.

“Prince James, this is your new classmate”, the professor started. “Come in young lady.”

James detailed me from head to toe as if he never had seen another human before.

“Hi !”, I said, sitting next to the young prince, “I’m Y/N, my mom is the new baker”, I smiled to him the best way I could, because as my mother used to say, we can win anyone with a smile.

“Whatever”, he answered, turning his gaze away from me.

After that, I didn’t really try to talk to him again for a while, James was unpleasant and used his social status to drive me up in the wall. He was the prince, and I was nothing, so I couldn’t really, defend myself. But as well-mannered as I was, he once pushed me out of my limits. We were in class, and he made a very mean remark and I lost control. The professor had to call both our parents to separate us and soon after, King George and my mother stepped in the room, while the teacher was trying to keep us away from each other.

“Y/N, baby, please, calm down”, my mother said, trying to retain me.

“But he’s insufferable, I hate him”, I yelled back, my gaze burning holes in James’ figure.

“Sweetie, he is a prince, whatever he says, he will be right.”

On his side, King George was lecturing James.

“Go and apologize”, my mother pushed me towards the prince.

“I’m sorry”, I told him, still sulking.

After that argument, James and I didn’t talk. He was often pranking me in the halls and I had to keep calm, because as I was told by my mother he was the prince, and I was nothing. Eventually, James finally found that pranking me wasn’t fun anymore.

Three years passed and one day, I heard a noise in a corner of a corridor, as I told Steve in the story. James was sitting, his back to the wall, crying and sniffing. Even if we weren’t the best friends in the world, it made me sad, so I sat next to him and put my hand on his.

“What’s happening to you ?”, I asked.

“That’s none of your business !”, he answered aggressively.

“I was just trying to be nice”, I responded him, getting up on my feet, ready to leave.

“That’s my mother and brother’s death anniversary”, he whispered, loud enough for me to hear it.

“I’m so sorry”, I told him. “I didn’t know that you had a brother and that your mother was dead the same day as him.”

“Not here”, he suddenly said. “Come with me”, he added, holding his hand and grabbing mine to make me follow him in an empty room.

We sat in front of one of the ceiling to floor window which was facing the beautiful garden, rain dripping on the glass. We both sat cross-legged on the wooden floor and looked at the rain falling for a few minutes before James started to talk again.

“My little brother, Steve, died five years ago, he was six, and I was eight. It was a stupid accident at first, he was two years younger than me. We were playing, he was on his scooter, and I was pushing him, we went in the backyard of our holiday house, not far from the sea, and there was that slope, that steep slope. I climbed behind him, and we went down it, we lost control of the scooter. I was thrown of off the scooter and I rolled down the slope, Steve was still on the scooter, screaming, begging for me to help him. I was full of cuts and bruises, my lower lip was slit, my left ankle was twisted and I had a broken wrist. But Steve, he… His race to the ground was still so quick…”, he stopped to catch his breath, and that’s at this moment that I realized how fast he was speaking. “He… He was kicked from the scooter too, but he landed on his head. Even from where I was, I heard his skull crack, I remember the noise it made, I saw him fall like a rag doll then. He wasn’t moving anymore, I screamed his name, but he didn’t move either. I don’t know how I did but I managed to get up and run to him, despite my cuts and bruises, my broken wrist and above all my twisted ankle, he wasn’t answering to my calls, he didn’t react when I shook him. He was hardly breathing. We were alone, no guards with us, our nanny was on her own holidays, our mother was alone with us, and she trusted me with Steve’s life and instead of taking care of him, he was severely injured. I screamed, hoping that someone would hear me. Due to shouting, someone finally heard me, it was a couple, young people, mi-twenties. The boy came to us, asking me what happened, I explained, and he sent his girlfriend to our house, she came back a few minutes later, our mother on her heels and a few servants. One of them had called an ambulance, they were quick but, time we arrived to the hospital, it was too late, but we didn’t know it yet. Steve was taken right away by the best doctors of the nearest hospital. My father had been called too, he left the palace immediately. While Steve was under a lot of tests, another doctor took care of me, they asked how all of that happened and so did my parents. My father was furious, saying that it was all my fault, my mother was helpless, she spent her time to pass in the room, waiting for any news of my little brother. The doctor who was taking care of me took me in quieter room, he patched me up, disinfected my wounds and plastered my wrist and ankle. Steve was having an MRI and it revealed a broken skull and a huge hematoma on his brain and a lot of blood. The doctors took him in an OR and opened his head to drain the blood and to reduce the bruise. They managed to, at least we thought they did. After two stable days, on the third one, Steve’s state changed and it became worse. He died on that day, because the hematoma was compressing his brain and it deprived it of its oxygen. My mother never recovered of it, Steve was her baby, her pregnancy was hard, Steve was the last child she could have. The day of Steve’s death first anniversary, my mother died, she let herself wither during that year, and she died. My father still thinks that it’s my fault, and I still think that it’s my fault too”, he finished, looking at me with those big blue orbs, full of tears.

“This is so sad, I didn’t know that your family was so broken, and the way it happened, it’s horrible. But I don’t think that it’s your fault. You were just a child, sharing a moment with his young brother.”

He looked at me as if it was the first time that someone told him that it was the first time no one reproached him his little brother’s death.

“What about you ?”, he asked once he was calmed. “What’s your story ? You might have some story too. After all your mother is alone and a strong woman, so maybe you can tell me.”

I took a deep breath, was I really ready to say to that guy that hated me barely an hour ago the sad story of my life ?

“So you noticed”, I started. “So the big thing is that I don’t know my father. He left when I was a baby. That’s what my mom told me, I don’t know if he left, left or if he’s dead. My mother never talk about him. When I was old enough to ask, I questioned her about him, and she just said that she had loved him very much and that they kinda suddenly realized that they were not meant to be together, but they then knew that I was in my mom’s belly, so they stayed together, until a few weeks after my birth, he told her that he couldn’t do it, that he wouldn’t manage to do it, that he couldn’t be a father, that he didn’t love me as cute as I might be. She never said anything else, just that she didn’t need him to raise me and I didn’t need him to love me because she loved me enough for two.”

“We both have sucking stories.”

“Yes, but, I think that can make us be friends”, I answered him.

“You think so ?”, he asked.

“Absolutely, James”, I smiled to him.

“So friends ?”, he questioned, holding his pinkie finger.

“Friends”, I responded, linking mine with his.

“By the way, you can call me Bucky.”

“Bucky ?”, I demanded, frowning.

“That’s the nickname Steve gave me.”

“Alright, Bucky”, I said, turning my attention back to the falling rain.

And that’s how things started between us. Starting by a friendship that with years evolved in something more. Something we didn’t see immediately. It took us a few times to realize. Three years and a stupid game for my birthday. Bloody Seven Minutes in Heaven. King George organized a party for my sixteenth birthday, nothing formal like for James’ birthday in March, children of nobles of the kingdom were invited, those that Bucky and I could sort of consider as friends. At some point, they blindfolded me and pushed me in a closet. A few seconds later, they pushed someone else in the closet.

“Y/N, are you here ?”  
  
“Bucky ?”  
  
“Yep, that’s me.”  
  
“What are we supposed to do in here ?”  
  
“Well that’s Seven Minutes in Heaven game, and we’re supposed to kiss.”  
  
“Oh”, was the only thing I managed to answer.  
  
“We’re not forced if you don’t want to.”  
  
“I… I don’t know in fact. Maybe we should try.”  
  
“Hey, it’s okay if you don’t want to.”  
  
Without responding, I grabbed him and pulled to me, crashing my lips on his. We pulled away after a second, just enough for Bucky to pull me back to his mouth. Our noses bumped against each other, his soft pink kissable lips caressing mine. Without realizing it, my arms wrapped themselves around his neck and his hands landed on my waist. He pulled me closer once again, our chest touching. He opened his mouth and his tongue poked my lower lip as if he was asking for some kind of permission. I allow it and then our kiss become a lot wetter than the one before and then I expected. As our kiss deepened, I felt Bucky’s hand tightening around my waist, and my hands found their way to his hair. I don’t know how long we stayed in the closet, but the thing that made us pull away were cheers from the guests. I felt my cheeks heating under their gaze, Bucky’s hands still around my waist.  
  
“It was about time”, one of them shouted and I buried my head in Bucky’s chest.  
  
The rest of the evening was spent with Bucky’s arms around me, or his hand in mine, or dancing close. When I blew my candles, he put a sweet little kiss on my nose making me giggle.  
  
I thought it was a one time thing, but it wasn’t. First it was stolen kisses in corridors, Bucky took the habit of grabbing me when I passed by him, and we spent the next minutes kissing as if Earth was going to stop turning. I don’t know if our parents knew at the beginning, what’s sure is that mom learned it on a day I was supposed to help her for a big event. Bucky sneaked inside the kitchen behind me and put down a kiss on my nape. My mother looked at us, holding back a chuckle.  
  
“Mrs Y/L/N, can I borrow Y/N to you please ?”, he asked.  
  
“I can’t James, my mother needs help.”  
  
“Go darling, I’ll handle this by myself”, my mother answered. “Go on lovebirds. Enjoy your youth time you can do it.”  
  
And that’s how it was, every day, when we were free. We were inseparable, always together, never far from each other. Two years passed. Our relationship was getting more and more serious. I was Bucky’s plus one to all the receptions, official girlfriend. I remember one day, someone asking King George if it disturbs him to see his son dating his baker’s daughter.  
  
“Well, my son is young”, he answered, “he’s having fun for now, I think that in one or two years, he is going to return to his senses.”  
  
Was it true, was James going to grow tired of me and marry a princess or a rich girl someday ? We were barely eighteen and I didn’t want to think about it. We were so in love and I also wasn’t thinking about the future. One night and after a long talk, we decided that it was time for us to have our first time. Obviously, it was disastrous. It was both our first time, it was clumsy and sorta painful the first time, but we decided to try a second time after a few hours and it was better. It wasn’t the first time that I was sleeping in Bucky’s bedroom, but I arranged myself to be gone before the servants came in for their morning service. But on that day, we were tired that none of us heard the maid enter the room with clean towels for Bucky’s shower.  
  
“Oh my god, I’m so sorry your highness !”, she suddenly exclaimed, seeing that James wasn’t alone in his bed. “I thought that you were alone, I didn’t know that you had company.”  
  
The night before, after our second round of love making, I fell asleep on the top of Bucky, his arms around me, which tightened when I tried to get up.  
  
“That’s okay Bryce, you can come back later”, Bucky mumbled while I was burring my face in the crook of his neck, mortified. Being a couple was a thing, being surprised in the morning after sex, stark naked in the future king’s arms was another.  
  
Bryce went out of the room and knowing her, it was sure that in less than five minutes, all the servants were going to know that she found me there.  
  
Time continued to pass, and contrary to what King George said, Bucky and I were still together. We celebrated our twenty-five birthday him in March and mine three months later. My mother died the year before, generalized cancer. She knew it for two years and only told me when it was sure that she couldn’t be cured. I spent three days crying in my room, not even letting Bucky in, until he climbed by my window to let himself in. He held me in his arms the all day, not saying a word. I became the baker in chief of the castle, working on cakes and deserts while still being with Bucky at parties and officials events. It doesn’t seem to disturb anyone in the kingdom, nor in the other kingdoms, maybe they thought that King George was enough open-minded to let his son being with one of his employee.  
  
For the past year, a little after my mother’s death, we started to talk about marriage and maybe children. At that moment, we were still thinking that King George would let us be. Unfortunately, it wasn’t the case. James planned to ask me to marry him and when he announced to his father his intention to make of me his wife, princess and future queen, King George simply answered him that if he did it, he would unprivileged him, no matter if he was his only child or not. When he came back and told me what his father said, he told me that he didn’t care, that Romania and his father didn’t matter, that all that matter was me and our love. I answered that we could find another way, to be together. That’s when he came to that idea.  
  
“What if, you got pregnant, if I’m the first one to know, he will be forced to let us marry, he would never let the future heir of Romania being a bastard.”  
  
“I know what we said about having children, but do you think that it’s a good idea ?”, I asked.  
  
“That’s maybe the only one we can try”, he finished, holding me close to him, before pecking the top of my head.  
  
A few weeks later, there was another event. Once again, a lot of people from other kingdoms were invited, royals, ambassadors, ministers, in short, a lot of important people. As I went for drinks for Bucky and me, I heard a conversation between two young women of my age.  
  
“I’m telling you, Dot, he’s not going to be interesting. He’s been with that girl for nine years now. He’s in love with her, I’ve never seen him looking at any other girl.”  
  
“He doesn’t know me yet”, the Dot girl responded to her friend. “I can offer him things that girl can’t. What is she anyway ?”  
  
“A baker”, her friend answered.  
  
“A baker ?!”, she laughed scornful. “What does he even see in her ? She’s nothing. She doesn’t have any important links or allies.”  
  
“King George seems to think that Prince James is going to change his mind about her, but he’s wasting his time.”  
  
“Let me try”, Dot told her. “I’m gonna wait for the party to be in full swing and I’ll try. I’m gonna insist so much that he’s going to forget his little baker.”  
  
“Good luck with that”, I said, passing by the two of them, two glasses in my hands, heading to Bucky waiting for me in a corner, talking to one of ambassadors.  
  
I felt the two girls gaze on me when Bucky bent down to kiss me and put his arm around my waist while still taking to the ambassador. Later during the evening, the Dot girl came and asked James to dance with her, saying that for the good relationships of her country and Romania, it would be nice to the future ruler of Romania to dance with her. She monopolized him for a few dances, until the moment I saw him stop dancing and telling her something, visibly pissed off.  
  
“That girl is the devil”, James said taking his previous place next to me. “She insinuated that because you were not a royal you were not worthy of being my wife.”  
  
“She doesn’t understand us, she’s a spoiled girl, she doesn’t know what real life is.”  
  
“I know, but now, enough talking about her. Would you dance with me, doll ?”  
  
“I’ll be honored to, your highness.”  
  
James grabbed my hand and led me on the dance floor.  
  
“I love you, you know that, don’t you doll ?”  
  
“Yes, I know, and I love you too Bucky.”  
  
I laid my head on his shoulder, and we slowly swayed to the music. It was like there was just him and me and no one else. When we go back to his bedroom, James made love to me more tenderly that he ever did. After losing ourselves in each others touches, I fell asleep in his arms, feeling that this was where I belonged. The last thing I heard was Bucky saying once again that he loved me.  
  
Obviously, we couldn’t plan what was going to happen after that night. It’s been a few days since I didn’t feel good in the morning. I felt nauseous and the sight only of food in the morning was enough to make me sick. That morning again, I rushed to the toilets barely awake. Bucky woke up early because he had some official duties to attend to, so I was alone in the bedroom. After I emptied the lining of my stomach, I went to the castle’s medicine cabinet which was at the disposal of every living person in the castle, that contained everything that could be useful, including pregnancy tests. I took one and head back to the bathroom in Bucky’s bedroom. Sitting on the toilet and peeing on the stick, I then waited for the result. These were the longest three minutes of my life. And I finally looked at it, it was positive. It was positive. I was expecting Bucky’s baby, which meant that when I would tell him, we could get married. I felt so happy, but I had to wait for him to come back. I put the test in the trash, deciding to make a special cake for James tonight when he would be back.  
  
I headed to the kitchen, starting to make his favorite cake, planing to make a special drawing on it. Something to announce him the big new. When the cake was ready, and I was preparing the sugar-paste icing, a servant from the castle entered the kitchen.  
  
“Miss Y/L/N”, he said.  
  
“Yes, what can I do for you ?”, I asked him.  
  
“The king wants to see you in his office right now, miss.”  
  
“Can’t it wait a few minutes, I have to finish this”, I responded, showing him my unfinished cake, whilst I was wiping my forehead, my hands full of floor.  
  
“He said right now, miss.”  
  
“Give me a minute, I’m gonna wash my hands”, I told him, worried about his tone and the fact that King George wanted to see me without warning, him that usually avoid me except when he was forced to.  
  
I washed my hands, cleaned my face and followed the servant to King George’s. I checked my hair and clothes, even if he didn’t like me, he was the king and I had to be presentable. The servant knocked on the king’s office door.  
  
“Come in”, he ordered.  
  
The servant opened the door and I stepped in, King George, his back facing me, was looking through the window, inside the garden.  
  
“Your Majesty”, I said, bowing, when he turned around.  
  
“You can leave”, the king motioned to the servant, who closed the door behind him. “Take a seat”, he added to my attention.  
  
I obeyed. I better knew that I had to. He turned to me, as cold as usual, his gaze traveling from my head to my toes, stopping on my stomach.  
  
“The servant that emptied James’ bathroom this morning brought something to me after she cleaned it”, I looked at him taking something from his desk’s drawer. I recognized the pregnancy test I did the very morning. “I think this looks familiar to you”, he added, putting it on his desk.  
  
“How… Why… Why did you rummage through our trash ?”, I asked him, shocked that he had it done.  
  
“Because my son is stupid enough to take a harmful decision just to keep you next to him and I can’t allow it. Luckily for me, I’m the first one to learn it, if James were the first, he would have claim the right to marry you. So, I’m gonna give you a choice. Give up on James and I’ll let you and your child live somewhere, far from Romania, and you will never contact James ever again, and he will never have to know about that kid. He’s going to be back in a few hours, so you’ll have time to pack your things in a suitcase and to broke up with him. You’re going to go inside of his bedroom and you will tell him that you are leaving him, that you never loved him.”  
  
I was holding back my tears. I couldn’t believe what he was asking me to do. Pretend that I never love the man I fell in love with when I was sixteen, the only man I’ve ever known, the man I spent nine years with, the love of my life.  
  
“What if I refuse ?”, I asked, my eyes full of hate.  
  
“If you refuse ?”, he repeated, laughing, bypassing his desk to stand in front of me. “If you refuse, my dear Y/N, I’ll make of your life a living hell”, he answered, his voice barely above a whisper. “I will find a way to make you lose that baby, and you’ll be miserable for the rest of your life or don’t have a life anymore, accidents happen so fast. Or I might lock you up in a cell and tell James that you ran away, and no one will know where you are.”  
  
I listened to his threats, still trying to hold back my tears.  
  
“I’ll never let you separate me from Bucky !”, I nearly yelled.  
  
“It’s Prince James to you, you’re maybe fucking him and carry his child, he’s the prince of that country and you are nothing, so you better don’t forget that my child ! You better accept my first proposal. I have other plans for James. Bigger plans. You have met princess Dot at the party, well she did a proposal that I can’t refuse. So tell James that you don’t love him or maybe, you and that child you’re carrying are going to join your mother”, he continued to threat.  
  
“I will do as you want”, I said completely broken, my tears falling down my cheeks.  
  
“You have”, he looked at his watch, “two hours to pack your things and then, say your goodbyes and leave”, he finished, still as cold as ice.  
  
While I was trying to process everything he just told me, he called a guard to escort me to my house to watch that I was packing as he said. Before going to that tiny place I had and which was sort of mine, I stopped by Bucky’s bedroom to take some of my stuff.  
  
“You must take everything, miss”, the guard told me. “Nothing can stay.”  
  
“I know”, I responded, wiping my eyes.  
  
“I’m really sorry for you miss”, he suddenly said, after a few seconds of silence, while I was folding a few clothes. “Prince James is going to be devastated to see that you’re gone. The whole castle thought that the king would let the two of you be, and the people too. This is completely unfair.”  
  
I didn’t answer, I was afraid that if I opened my mouth again, tears would fall again. He then escorted me to my little house. I put other things in my suitcase. I sighed when I locked the door. My whole life was in two suitcases. I waited for the guard to have the signal of Bucky’s return from the event he was attended to.  
  
“Your suitcases are in the car, miss”, the guard said, “you can go and see prince James, he’s in his bedroom.”  
  
I lifted my gaze to watch his face. My eyes were dry due to my crying. I got up and followed him. I managed to compose myself before facing Bucky. I took a deep breath and entered his room. His back was facing me, he was passing his hands through his short chestnuts hair, making them messy. The sun was hitting his skin and I couldn’t believe what I was about to do. He might have heard the door cracked because he turned around, a huge smile on his face.  
  
“Hey doll”, he said, walking towards me, to hold me close to him. “I missed you all day, I wish you were there with me”, he added, leaning to kiss me.  
  
“Bucky please, I have something important to tell you”, I tried to free myself from his embrace.  
  
He looked at me with puppy eyes, not understanding why I suddenly wanted him to let me go.  
  
“Y/N, babe, is everything alright.”  
  
“I have something important to tell you, James.”  
  
He frowned at the way I said his given name. I didn’t know where to start, so I decided that I should be direct.  
  
“I’m leaving you James”, I told him, without daring looking at his face.  
  
“That’s… That’s a joke. Please… Please, tell me that it’s a joke”, he stammered.  
  
“No, that’s not. I’m leaving and you can’t make me stay.”  
  
“But, why ? Is it because of what that Dot girl said a few days ago, during the ball ? Did someone ask you to do so ? Did someone threat you ? Did my father ask you to do this ?”  
  
“No, James no one asked me anything, that’s my own decision”, I said, barely looking at his face, but not into his eyes.  
  
“Just like that ?!”, he nearly screamed. “That’s a sudden decision, when we talked about getting married and have kids, finding a plan to get around my father’s plan. Why, tell me, why ?”  
  
“Because I don’t love you”, I blurted.  
  
“No, I don’t believe it”, tears in his gorgeous blue eyes, like the day we became friends.  
  
“That’s the truth James, I don’t love you”, I still don’t look at him.  
  
“I don’t believe it, and you know why, you’re not even looking at me in the eyes. So do it Y/N, look at me in the eyes and tell me that you don’t love me.”  
  
I gathered my courage and look at him in the eyes : “I don’t love you James. I never have.”  
  
“No, you’re lying, you don’t fake a nine years relationship.”  
  
“No James, I don’t love you, now let me go.”  
  
I turned abruptly and started to run. I knew that Bucky would try to follow me, and King George knew it too, so as soon as I rushed out of Bucky’s bedroom door, two of them blocked him the way out. I heard him scream my name but I didn’t stop. I reached the car and opened it before I dive in the backseat. That’s the moment I allowed myself to cry. The car started to run and I finally allowed myself to cry. I heard from the front of the car, the radio playing the song from A Chorus Line, What I Did For Love. At the moment, that song perfectly represented what I was feeling. Through the open window, I heard that Bucky was still shouting my name, asking me to come back, screaming that he loved me. I tried to convince myself that what I just did was for love, saying to Bucky that I didn’t love him was what I did for love, my love for him and for our future baby.

After an hour’s drive, we finally arrived at the airport. The driver had for instruction to accompany me to the reservation desk where a plane ticket was waiting for me to London. There I had a hotel room waiting for me and for tomorrow, another plane ticket, with my name on to anywhere I want, except Romania. King George also gave me a lot of money for leaving Romania. Money to buy my silence, it was added to the salary I earned for my work as a baker, even if I was dating James, I still was an employee of the castle, and to the inheritance my mother left me. All of that made a little fortune, I could literally do what I wanted with all of that. Once in London, I reached the hotel where King George had booked me a room, it was near to Heathrow airport. Once there, I finally did something I didn’t have time to do since I saw the result of the pregnancy test, I lifted my shirt and looked at my belly in the mirror. I put my hand on it, moving it up and down.  
  
“Don’t worry baby, we’re going to make it.”  
  
The next day, I figured out what to do. I know that I couldn’t stay in London, I had no acquaintances there, after all I left fifteen years ago, I was a child and I spent more time in Romania than anywhere else. I looked at some old pictures I put in one of my suitcases, it was a photograph of my mother and me, when I was a baby, in front of a bakery. I turned the picture around and watch at my mother’s nice handwriting. It read : “Martha and Y/N, Cape May, March 1988”. I wasn’t even a year old. Cape May, my birthplace. That’s the place I had to go, no one could find me there, nor Bucky, nor King George, I would live a quiet life, with my baby there. I called the airport and booked a ticket for Newark for the very evening.  
  
I arrived by night in Cape May, took a cab and ask the driver to take me to a hotel. He stopped me in front of the Jersey S.H.I.E.L.D. telling me that it was one of the best and cheapest place in town. I thanked and paid him, before stepping outside of the car to take my two suitcases that he put out of the trunk. I dragged my luggage behind me and pushed the main door. The hallway, which was the reception too, was cosy and welcoming. No one was behind the counter, so I decided to ring the bell. Five minutes later, a tall dark-skinned man stepped in.  
  
“Good evening miss, what can I do for you ?”, he asked me.  
  
“I’d like to rent a room, please.”  
  
“For how long ?”  
  
“I don’t know yet, time I find a place to settle”, I answered him.  
  
“Perfect. What name please ?”  
  
“Y/L/N”, I said, “Y/N Y/L/N.”  
  
“We had a Y/L/N here like twenty-five years ago, she looked like you, Y/H/C hair, Y/E/C eyes, she had a daughter that might be your age now. She was a baker. Her name was Martha.”  
  
“That’s my mom”, I said, looking at the man.  
  
He lifted his gaze to me, detailing me more that he did before, looking at my whole face, a smile appearing.  
  
“The last time I saw you, you were a tiny toddler. When your mother left for England you were too young to remember anything, so I don’t think that you remember me. I’m Nick, Nick Fury”, he held his hand to me.  
  
“I don’t want to be rude Mister Fury, but I feel really exhausted, I had a long journey.”  
  
“Yes, of course dear, I’m gonna call my son to take your luggage to your room”, he turned to the place he came from. “T'Challa”, he called. “You might not remember my son T'Challa, but you were under the watch of the same nanny, my wife, Ororo.”  
  
“Yes, father ?”, a very good-looking tall young man of my age appeared in the door frame.  
  
“Can you please tale Miss Y/L/N’s suitcases in room 32.”  
  
“Of course, dad”, he passed by me, shooting a bright smile.  
  
“How’s your mother ?”, Nick asked me when his son was gone, showing me where I had to go.  
  
“She died last year. Generalized cancer”, I answered him.  
  
“Oh, I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have asked”, he apologized.  
  
“That’s okay, don’t worry.”  
  
He showed me an open door, and motioned for me to come in. T'Challa crossing our way when he went out.  
  
“I’ll send him in fifteen minutes to give you some food, and then, you’ll be able to rest”, Nick told me.  
  
“Thank you”, I answered. “But, we didn’t talk about how much it’ll coast for the room.”  
  
“Oh don’t worry about that, my dear. Your mother was family to me, so you are family too, and we don’t make family pay.”  
  
After a few days of rest, I decided that it was time to find a house and a place to work. Nick told me that the old bakery where my mother used to work, closed not long after she left, the owner died and no one was there to reopen it.  
  
“What if I reopened it ?”, I said one day, while I was making dessert for diner, what I was now used to do as some kind of repay, since Nick didn’t want me to pay for my room.  
  
“That could be a good idea, and you have the money for that”, Nick answered, sitting at the kitchen table, looking at what I was doing, knowing that I had money, even if I didn’t tell him that it was my ex-boyfriend father who gave it to me to buy my silence.  
  
“Yes, but, I’m gonna need someone to make bread, I can only do cakes, pastries and viennoiseries”, I sighed.  
  
“I might have an idea”, T'Challa entered the kitchen.  
  
“I’m listening”, I said, looking up from my mixture.  
  
“I have a friend, Sam, he’s a baker, he wanted to buy the old bakery that your mother worked in. He didn’t have enough money and the bank didn’t want to make him a loan. They said he didn’t have enough guarantees. So he’s selling bread at his place. It kinda pisses off his wife, Natasha. I can call him and you could meet.”  
  
“Why not, an associate is a good idea, I can’t run a bakery by myself, especially not with a baby on its way.”  
  
I had an appointment the next day for buying the store and a house and T'Challa called his friend for me to meet him at his home to propose him the job. I decided that I was going to use the huge money King George gave me only to buy the bakery, the house and furniture for it, and no more. I decided to earn my life as anyone else, keeping the money in case I’m going to need it in the future. The seller was surprised that a twenty-five years old young woman could buy a house and a store so easily. I made a story up, saying that I inherit it from family. He didn’t ask more and made me sign the papers.  
  
The next day, I went to the Wilson’s house, I was hoping to have a positive answer from Sam to be my associate in that business. I rang the bell and a beautiful red-head woman, with stunning green eyes opened the door. I assumed that it was Natasha, Sam’s wife.  
  
“Hello”, she said, “what can I do for you ?”  
  
“Hi, sorry to disturb you. I’m T'Challa’s friend and I’m here to see Sam Wilson.”  
  
“Oh, you must be Y/N”, she said, smiling at me. “Come in, I’m gonna call him. He’s downstairs making a batch. Sam, T'Challa’s friend is here”, she shouted, through an open door that must lead to the basement.  
  
“I’m coming baby”, I heard a voice shouting back.  
  
Natasha made me follow her in the kitchen, she proposed me something to drink and I accepted a cup of tea. We start talking, and she told me that she and Sam were married for two years now, they met at college and arrived from D. C four years ago. Five minutes later, a tall man with a dark skin and a goofy smile appeared.  
  
“Hi”, he said, leaning to kiss his wife’s forehead, before holding his hand to me, “you must be Y/N. T'Challa talked a lot about you, he even made me taste a piece of one of your cakes, it was like heaven.”  
  
“Thanks”, I responded, blushing.  
  
“So, it’s about the bakery, that’s it ?”, he asked, sitting next to Natasha.  
  
“Yes, that’s it.”  
  
And I explained everything to him. He was completely excited by the project and accepted right away. With years, and as the Furys, the Wilsons became my family.  
  
A month later, after I settle down in my new house and started the renovation of the bakery, I had an appointment to the gynecologist for an ultra son to know the baby’s sex.  
  
“It’s gonna be cold”, the doctor warned me.  
  
She started to move her wand, looking at my baby’s figure on the screen.  
  
“Here you can see a hand, and there is a foot. The head is here, eyes, nose, mouth. Do you want to know if it’s a boy or a girl ? They are in a good angle to see.”  
  
“Yes, I would love to”, I said in awe, looking at that little one that Bucky and I made.  
  
“So, it’s a…”, she moved the wand once again, “a boy”, she turned to me and grinned widely.  
  
“Steven James”, I whispered to myself when she turned back to the screen.  
  
“What ?”, she might have heard me.  
  
“That’s… That’s the name I’m going to give him. I made my mind a long time ago.”  
  
“Well, if you’re sure of that, I can already put his name on your file.”  
  
I just nodded. She gave me another appointment and said that next time, it could be good if I had someone coming with me. Maybe the father. I explained that there was no father, and she suggested that a friend could be the one coming with me.  
  
Five months later, I gave birth to Steve. Sam and Natasha were in the labor room with me, each of them holding my hands. At the beginning, the doctors didn’t want to let them in, and I told them that I wouldn’t give birth to my child without my family supporting me, so they gave up. I cried when Steve was put down on my chest. He had a mop of dirty blond hair on the top of his head, like his uncle I named him after as I saw on the many pictures there was in the castle when I lived there. When he opened his eyes and turned his little head to me, I noticed two grey-blue orbs, the same as Bucky’s, the same that stared at me during fifteen years. I burst into tears at that moment. The doctors thought that I needed to rest, the truth was that everything was suddenly overwhelming me, the fact that I was the only relative that Steve would ever know and that I will have to be everything to him. When I came back home, I realized that I wasn’t as alone as I thought. I had Sam and Natasha, Nick, Ororo and T'Challa. I asked Nat and Sam to be Steve’s godparents, what they accepted without even thinking twice.  
  
I tried to date a few men during the past five years. It started with T'Challa. Barely a month after I arrived, he asked me out, saying that he would love us to know each other again, because we were just toddlers when I left. I accepted, quickly realizing that he wanted more than friendship. I gently pushed him away, saying that I wasn’t ready to be romantically involved again, and that even if I really liked him, I thought about him only as a friend and not as a potential lover. I had other dates, that were not really important, most of them running away when I told them that I had a kid. There was only one that didn’t run away. I met him at the bookstore he was running. Steve was two years old, and I went there to buy him story books. One second away from looking at him, and Steve managed to sneak out from his stroller.  
  
“Stevie ! Stevie where are you ?”, I looked for him in the store and a tall man with black hair and green eyes came out from the back shop, Steve between his arms.  
  
“Mommy, mommy”, Steve’s little voice yelled.  
  
“He’s here”, he said holding him to me. “I think he just wanted to explore”, the man smiled.  
  
“Thank you”, I told him. “Don’t ever do that to me again Steven James Y/L/N ! Thank you so much”, I turned back to the guy.  
  
“I’m Jared”, he introduced himself, shaking my hand.  
  
“Y/N, and this is Steve.”  
  
“Nice to meet the two of you. So what were you looking for ?”  
  
“Just some story books for that little man before he goes to sleep at night.”  
  
“Well, I can help you with that. That’s my store, so I know what you can choose for that little fella.”  
  
After three or four other visits to Jared’s store, he invited me to diner with him. He was cute, nice, funny, smart and liked Steve. We started to date, but I told him that I wanted to take things slow. When we had our fifth date, and when he took me back home, he asked if he could kiss me. I accepted but at the moment his lips were touching mine, I burst into tears.

“Y/N, did I do something wrong ?”, he sweetly asked.  
  
“No, you’re not doing anything wrong. That’s me. I can’t. I’m sorry, Jared, but I can't”, saying those words, I rushed into my house and locked the door, crying, my back to it.  
  
Sam came from upstairs, where I assumed that he was checking on Steve. He proposed to look after him while I was out. Nat was visiting her family, and he was for once alone with his godson.  
  
“Hey sweetie, why are you crying ?”, he questioned, sitting on the floor next to me. “Did he do something you didn’t want to you ? He looked like a nice guy, though.”  
  
“He’s not the problem Sam, I am. He asked if he could kiss me and I said yes and when he did, I pushed him away.”  
  
“Does this has a link with Steve’s father ?”  
  
I just nodded. I couldn’t lie to Sam, he was my best friend, him and Natasha were, they were even more for me, family, the brother and the sister I never had.  
  
“You know, you never told me about him nor what happened. What if I make you a cup of tea, and you tell me everything.”  
  
I nodded again, letting Sam pull me up on my feet. I sat on the couch, and he gave me tissues to mope my eyes. Several minutes later, he came back with two steaming cups of tea that put down on the coffee table.  
  
“So, tell me, take your time, I’m staying here, Nat is out of town and my little sister needs me.”  
  
I told him everything, well almost. I just stayed silent on Bucky’s status, not telling him that he was a prince, I just told Sam that Bucky’s family was really rich, I don’t even gave him his real name, calling him Bucky only. I was nostalgic at the moment, and I still am today, I knew that deep in my heart, I still loved Bucky, that I still do. I had to leave, but he was always here, in my heart and head and I couldn’t do anything to drive him off of my head. Sam didn’t judge me, I think that he was, somehow, understanding it, he asked if he could tell Natasha when she comes back and I accepted, trusting them enough to know that they won’t tell anybody.  
  
The next day, I went to Jared’s store and apologized, telling him I would probably never be ready for a relationship, but that we could stay friends. He accepted.  
  
So for almost three years now, I am single and the only man of my life is the little blond one deeply asleep in his tiny bed. A quick look at him makes me realize how much he looks like to his father, his way to sleep, the way he softly snores, the way he’s lying down in his bed. Even his habits when he’s awake. I still remember Bucky having milk mustache during breakfast, sometimes chocolate on his nose. I dread the day when Steve is going to ask me about his dad. He already started when he started school, asking why his classmates had dads and why he didn’t. I just answered that it was complicated, and that I might explain it to him when he would be older. I take a last look at my uncrowned prince of Romania sleeping in his little bed, surrounded by colors, toys, stuffed animals, drawings that he made, and despite his four years old, he’s already an artist. Before leaving the room, I lean and whisper inside his ear, ‘I love you, I always have and I always will’. He slightly moves, opening and closing his mouth a few times, before squeezing his fox to his chest. I don’t know what Bucky became, I shut all the news from Romania or the Romanian royal family. He probably married that evil girl and have a bunch of legitimate kids.  
  
Every month, Sam and I organize a workshop for Cape May kids. Steve is always here and his classmates too. The kids love to bake and I often give them back to their parents full of chocolate and flour. I teach them to make desserts and cakes from all around the world and Sam show them how to make little balls of bread. Today is particularly hot and we opened all the windows and allowed the kids to play in the closed courtyard in front of the bakery. Sam and I are talking and laughing, and I suddenly hear Steve talking to someone who’s not one of his friends. I look at Sam, making him understand that I’m going outside. A tall man, his back to me, is talking to my son.  
  
“She’s here”, Steve shouts, running to me. “Mommy, mommy, the man wanna talk to you”, he says, pointing the man behind him.  
  
As if he was waiting for Steve to tell me that he wanted to see me, the man turns around. My hand flies to my mouth when he faces me, when I see those chestnuts messy hair, those blue-grey eyes that the little boy who is holding my hand has too, those plump red lips that kissed me so many times. The man I thought I would never see again in my life. James Buchanan Barnes. Bucky. I suddenly let Steve’s hand go and run back inside, slamming the door. Both my hands reach my face and I try to breathe normally again. Sam stares at me, as if I’m crazy.  
  
“Y/N, is everything alright ?”, he asks.  
  
I just shake my head.  
  
“What’s going on ?”  
  
As I still don’t answer, Sam decides to go outside to see what’s going on.  
  
“Uncle Sam !!!”, I hear Steve cheering.  
  
“Kids, go back inside”, Sam calmly.  
  
“But why ?”, Steve asks.  
  
“Do what I ask Steve.”  
  
The kids all rush inside. I’m sitting on the floor, my knees to my chest, my head between my hands. Steve approaches me and puts a hand on my shoulder.  
  
“Are you okay mommy ?”  
  
I lift my teary eyes to him. How can I say to my kid why I am crying when I’m no even sure that he is going to understand.  
  
“Mommy”, Steve looks at me, his lower lip trembling, his eyes starting to watering, he throws himself in my arms, wrapping his arms around my neck. “Don’t cwy mommy, pwease, don’t cwy.”  
  
I start to smooth his hair with my hand, holding him close to me.  
  
“It’s gonna be okay baby, look, that’s okay, I’ll stop.”  
  
I grab a dish towel and start to wipe my eyes and then Steve’s, making him blow in it. Sam comes back at the same moment. He holds his hand to and helps me up. I take a look by the window.  
  
“He’s gone”, Sam says, “but he gave me this for you. He said that he’d like you to call him. He’s staying at Nick’s.”  
  
Sam gives me a card with a phone number on and James’ full name and title.  
  
“I’m gonna call the kids’ parents, and you and Steve are going to come home to eat, and we’re going to talk a little.”  
  
I nod, not knowing what to say. The parents arrive to take their kids ten minutes later and I tell them that they will have their kids cakes and bread the next day. When one of the parents ask why I looked so bad, Sam simply answers that I’m not feeling really well and that we preferred to send the kids back home instead of giving them bugs.  
  
Once at Sam’s place, he directly goes to see Natasha in the living room, where she’s feeding their six-month old daughter, Romy.  
  
“Auntie Nat !!!”, Steve shouts stepping inside the house.  
  
“Hey Stevie, how are you ?”  
  
“Good. Hello Womy.”  
  
The baby looks up at Steve, pushing the teat out of her mouth, her big green eyes open, babbling at Steve.  
  
“Hey, are you okay ?”, Nat asks me when I finally follow Steve’s path.  
  
“Not really.”  
  
She looks up at Sam and he nods. While Steve was kneeling in front of the coffee table, enjoying his meal Sam ordered him, next to Romy who’s looking at him, still babbling in her baby rocker, we sit in the kitchen, it’s time to tell everything I hide to my friends.  
  
“Why didn’t you tell us that your Bucky was the prince James Barnes of Romania ?”, Sam starts.  
  
“Baby, please, go-slow on her, it must be tough for her to see him after so long”, Nat pleads.  
  
“Because I didn’t think that I was going to see him again in my life”, I answer. “How was I supposed to tell you ‘my boyfriend’s father, the king of Romania gave me a lot of money for me to go away because he didn’t want me to marry his son and when I heard that I was pregnant he threatened me to death if I was staying’.”  
  
“Yeah, sorry, you’re right”, Sam apologizes.  
  
“What are you going to do ?”, Nat asks.  
  
“I think, I’m gonna call him. Now that he’s here and that he saw Steve, I don’t really have the choice. Steve is gonna ask a lot of questions, but, now that he has the opportunity, I’d love him to know his dad.”

When I come back home, with a very excited full of food Steve. I help him to put his pajamas and clean up his face. Then, I sit on his bed, pulling him to me and making him sitting on my knees.  
  
“Steve, baby, mommy has something to tell you.”  
  
“Yes, mommy ?”, he snuggles into me and looks up at me in the eyes.  
  
“Remember the man that asked for me earlier”, Steve nods. “Well, remember, you asked me about your daddy too ?”, he nods again. “Well, the man you saw earlier, that’s your daddy. He came from far away, I don’t know how he found us, but he did and I think that now he would like to know you. I’m going to call him tomorrow and maybe we can have lunch with him or tea. What do you think about it ?”  
  
Steve nods. I decide that it’s time that I told him about something else.  
  
“Do you remember the story of the Prince and the baker girl, I can’t tell you some parts because you are too young, but it’s not a story, in fact that’s your daddy and mine story.”  
  
His little face lights up : “You mean my daddy is the pwince ?”  
  
I nod : “Yes baby, your daddy is the prince. But for now, keep the secret. You promise.”  
  
“Yes, mommy, I pwomise.”  
  
“Good, now we’re going to bed.”  
  
As I told Steve, I call Bucky the next morning, asking him to join us for the afternoon snack, at the local tea house. Bucky was already there when Steve and I arrive. He’s sitting at a table, alone, studying the tea house’s menu. Steve’s hand in mine, I walk to the table.  
  
“Hi James.”  
  
“Hello Y/N. Hi Steve.”  
  
“Hello”, he shyly responds, not really knowing where he has to look.  
  
“Come on baby, sit down.”  
  
Steve sits, still not tearing his gaze away from Bucky. Few minutes later, Eva, the owner of the tea house shows to our table.  
  
“Y/N, Steve, it’s been a while”, she looks down at Steve, with a big smile. “Sir”, she says, turning to Bucky. “What can I get you ?”  
  
“Chocolate and whipped cream !!!”, Steve exclaims.  
  
“The same as usual Stevie.”  
  
“I’m gonna take the same as usual too”, I smile to her.  
  
“Sir ?”  
  
“I’m… I’m gonna take the same thing too.”  
  
Eva nods and comes back a few minutes later with our orders.  
  
“And this is your order, I hope you’re going to enjoy it.”  
  
“Thanks Eva.”  
  
After a few minutes of silence, Steve pokes my ribs.  
  
“Mommy, give me the dwawing, pwease”, I hand him the fold paper, and he unfolds it, slipping it on the table for Bucky to take it. “It’s for you. I dwew a pwince, and a baby pwince. I am the baby pwince.”  
  
“Thank you, Steve, that’s beautiful, I really like it”, Bucky says, looking at the drawing.  
  
And that’s how Steve and Bucky start to talk to each other, finding interests in common. When it’s time for us to go, Bucky asks me if he can take Steve with him the next morning to spend the day together.  
  
“Why would I say no. You’re his father after all.”  
  
“Thanks doll.”  
  
I flinch at the nickname, it’s been five years since anyone had called me that.  
  
The next morning, Bucky takes Steve to spend the day with him. When I join Sam at the bakery, he asks me how was the meeting yesterday.  
  
“Great”, I answer. “They quickly get along.”  
  
Sam doesn’t ask anything else.  
  
When Bucky comes back with Steve, the last seems really happy, a few toys between his arms.  
  
“Look mommy, daddy and I had a great day. We went to the beach and we ate ice creams. We also saw puppies and kitties. And we had cheeseburgers.”  
  
“It seems that you had fun”, I smile down to Steve. “Go upstairs and wash your hands. I’m coming in a few minutes.”  
  
“Goodbye daddy”, Steve shouts to Bucky before climbing the stairs.  
  
“Bye Steve”, Bucky waves back to him.  
  
When Steve is upstairs, Bucky looks at me, with a wide smile on his face.  
  
“He’s amazing, you raised him well.”  
  
“I did my best. He’s really clever. And I had wonderful people to help me.”  
  
“Yeah, that Sam guy. At first, I thought you were dating him and then, Steve told me that he was his godfather, and his wife, Natasha, his godmother. And he even talked me about the baby, Romy.”  
  
“He’s really attached to them, after all, he knew them his whole life.”  
  
“You managed to build a family”, I just nod as an answer. “Y/N, listen, I’d like to have diner with you tomorrow night, I’m going back to Romania the day after tomorrow, and we need to talk I think.”  
  
“Okay, why not. I’m gonna ask Sam and Nat to take care of Stevie tomorrow.”  
  
“I pick you up at 7:30 ?”  
  
“7:30 sounds good.”  
  
“See ya tomorrow.”  
  
He pecks my cheek and leave. I put my hand where his lips were barely seconds ago, smiling to myself as a teenager whom just have been invited to her first date. I’m interrupted in my thoughts by Steve calling for me upstairs.  
  
“Stop worrying, you’re perfect, absolutely stunning”, Natasha tells me while I’m passing back and forth in her living room.  
  
“I don’t know what he wants from me Nat. He just said that we needed to talk.”  
  
At the moment she’s about to add something, someone knocks on the front door. Sam opens it and Bucky steps in. They look at each other for a few minutes, and I don’t know if Sam tries to intimidate him or if he decided that he wasn’t ready to like him.  
  
“Daddy !!!!”, Steve runs to Bucky and throws himself in his arms.  
  
“Hey little one”, James ruffles our son’s hair.  
  
“Stevie, be nice tonight with uncle Sam and aunt Nat. You’re sleeping here tonight, I’m going to pick you up tomorrow.”  
  
Once at the restaurant, the beginning of the diner spend in a sort of awkward silence, until the middle of the main course.  
  
“I need to know Bucky, how did you find me ?”  
  
“When you left, I looked for you everywhere I could. To the most obvious places I thought you would be, but I didn’t have any clues, you disappeared easily. I looked for you for two years. I had to slow down when my father got sick. And I had to stop when he was dying. And that’s when he told me. He told me that he forced you to leave, that he forced you to lie to me, that he gave you money, that he forbid you to come back to Romania ever again, that he threatened you that if you stayed he would kill you or the baby you were carrying. That’s how I learned that you were pregnant. He said that on his deathbed. When he told me, all I wanted was to rush out of Romania and look for you again, but I haven’t had time to. I was crowned before I had time to process. For the past two years and a half, I had to rule my country, I had to change a lot if things there. I had to prove that I was worthy to reign. And before I had the time to realize it, almost three years passed. I thought it was hopeless and then I saw that article in a newspaper. I read it, not really taking attention about what I was reading, until I saw the pictures going with it. On the first one, you were with Sam and I saw red, thinking he was the man you started a new life with. And then there were two other photos, one of just you, and I thought that you didn’t change. And the last one, how can I forget how I felt seeing it. You were holding a little boy in your arms, a dirty-blond hair little boy, looking so much like my little brother. I had to come, I had to see you, I had to see my son. The baby you didn’t have time to tell me about. That baby that we wanted. The baby I couldn’t stop thinking about since the moment I knew about him. And now that I met him, I know that I can’t live without him.”  
  
“Yeah, and you think that your delicious wife, what’s her name again, oh yes, Dot, is going to accept it ? I don’t think so”, I answer him, rising from my chair brusquely and rushing out of the restaurant.  
  
“Y/N, wait”, I hear him running behind me. He probably left a lot of money on the table before going out.  
  
He easily catches up on me and grabs my arm to make me stop. He’s facing me, his eyes in mine, while we are both breathing heavily.  
  
“I don’t… I don’t have a wife. I didn’t marry her.”  
  
“What ?!”  
  
“I’ve been engaged with Dot, yes, but she was insufferable. She spent her time to insult you, saying that you were not worthy of me, or of anyone else, she spent her time calling you 'that girl’, and when she learned about the baby, she called you a slut, ready to anything to have the throne. When my father died, the first thing I did was to break the engagement, I couldn’t imagine myself married to such a bitch for the rest of my life, even if I had to spend it alone. And the truth is that I love you, I still love you and I always will, you’re the love of my life Y/N Y/L/N and it’s not going to stop anytime soon.”  
  
I haven’t noticed until now that rain was falling. With those words, Bucky leans towards me and kisses me, like we had so many times before. His kisses haven’t changed, they are still so sweet and passionate, but yet so needy. His arms circle my waist when my hands find their way to his hair. Rain continues to fall, people are running but nothing else exists around us.  
  
“Home”, I whisper against his lips, and we start running hand in hand to my front door.  
  
I quickly open the door and pull James inside by his collar. He shut it and follows me in the stairs. Once in my bedroom, we pull off our clothes. Bucky lies me down on my bed and kisses my lips again, until it becomes something more.

When I wake up, I feel under my cheek a smooth skin belonging to a strong body. I sigh in content, my face rising and falling with Bucky’s breathing. He fell asleep with an arm around me and the other behind his head. It stopped raining at some moment during the night, but we don’t even notice when. At the beginning, I was surprised that Bucky’s skin against mine felt so familiar even after five years, but it’s still the same between us, nothing has changed. I smile at that thought.  
  
“Why are you smiling ?”, his tired voice asks me.  
  
“I’m just thinking at how perfect was last night”, I answer, lifting my upper body, and putting my chin on my hands, on his chest.  
  
“Yeah it was, as in the good old days.”  
  
He suddenly flips me on my back and hovers me, his lips ready to crash against mine, when we’re interrupted.  
  
“Mommy !!! I’m home !!!”  
  
“Shit”, I push Bucky back to the bed and rush outside to dress with the first thing I find, Bucky’s shirt.  
  
A rapid look at the clock and I see that it’s 11:30 am. Steve was supposed to stay with Sam and Nat until I was going to take him there. Behind me, I hear Bucky getting dress.  
  
“What are you doing here ?”, I ask, when I see Sam closing the door.  
  
“Steve wanted to come back, he said he forgot his drawing pad. I didn’t think that you would still be busy”, he answers, with a cocky smirk on his face.  
  
“Shut up !”  
  
I go to Steve and kiss his cheek. James is coming downstairs, shirtless, only wearing his pants.  
  
“Daddy !!!”, Steve turns to him. “You slept hewe ?”  
  
“Yes, Stevie, I slept here. Your mommy and I had a conversation last night.”  
  
“You stay hewe ?”, Steve asks again.  
  
“No baby”, I answer. “Daddy has to go back to his country. He has a lot of work to do.”  
  
“And that’s something else I wanted to talk about last night.”  
  
“Can this wait for after we take a shower and have lunch ?”, I ask him.  
  
“Sure, doll, it can”, he grabs his jacket on the banister. “Join me with Steve at my hotel, I’m taking you both to lunch”, he adds, before pecking my lips and petting Steve’s hair. “Sam”, he says, passing by him.  
  
“Your highness”, Sam answers.  
  
As soon as Bucky closes the door, Sam turns to me, saying that Natasha is going to want to know all the details.  
  
After I took a quick shower and chose a [blue sundress](http://zupimages.net/viewer.php?id=17/35/dp4w.jpg), Steve and I head to Bucky’s hotel. He’s waiting for us outside. He takes Steve’s other hand and the three of us walk to the restaurant. From the outside, if you’re looking at us, we look like a classic family, but we’re not. Steve knows his dad for only three days and it’s already like he had him his whole life, as for me, it’s like we have never been separated during the last five years. We spend the day as a family, taking pictures, as if it’s something we often do, Steve even saying that it’s disgusting when we kiss. The day finishes way too quickly, and around five, we’re back at Bucky’s hotel because he has to leave for New York to take his plane to Romania.  
  
We sit on the park next to the hotel, Steve plays in the installations, when Bucky turns to me.  
  
“Come back to Romania with me.”  
  
“What ?!”  
  
“Please. I can’t live without the two of you. Come back to Romania with me, be my wife, my queen, Steve would be the true heir of the realm. I love you and I love Steve. I have two planes tickets, I know that Steve has a passport, he told me you had to make him one to go to the French Caribbean, he told me that you, Sam and Nat went there last summer. Please come back with me.”  
  
“I… I can’t Bucky, as much as I want to, I can’t. That’s not a life for me.”  
  
“That’s not what you were saying five years ago.”  
  
“It was five years ago. Things have changed Bucky. There’s Steve, how can I make him change his whole life ? I love you but I can’t leave everything like this.”  
  
“There are two plane tickets in that envelope. I’m giving it to you. If you want to come, you just have to give it to the counter. It expires next month. I’ll be waiting for you.”  
  
And with that, he kisses me one last time, before raising, and then, goes to Steve to say goodbye. I see from my seat my son crying, not wanting to say goodbye to his dad, without knowing when he’s going to see him again, or if he’s going to see him again. It breaks my heart, but how could I say yes to Bucky, even if I really wanted to. How can I take my son to a place he doesn’t know where the only people he’s going to know are his father and me for him to lose everything he ever knew.  
  
Bucky has left for a week now. Steve cries every day and I’m not in a better state. I miss having Bucky around, I miss that feeling I have when he’s around, the feeling that I’m not alone in the world, that feeling that my heart is not half empty.  
  
“Okay, that’s enough now”, Nat finishes saying one day. “I can’t bear to see the two of you that miserable ! It has to stop, Y/N. You and Steve are miserable since the moment James left. Go to him, go find him.”  
  
“But Nat I can’t…”  
  
“No”, she cuts me. “I heard your excuses one hundred times, I’m tired of it. You’re looking for excuses because you’re afraid. But you don’t have to be. He’s waiting for you, for you two. Go to him.”  
  
Without thinking, I rise from my seat and run home. I grab two suitcases, one for me, the other for Steve. I throw clothes and toilet set in both cases. I quickly checked before taking our stuff for a plane to Romania. I found one in three hours. I rush to my car, plane tickets and passports in hand, putting the cases in the trunk and start the engine to Steve’s school. Once there, I open his classroom’s door, say to his teacher that it’s important, that we have to go somewhere, somewhere we were expected. Steve is confused, he doesn’t know where we are going, and he asks for his fox. I throw it to him quickly, without taking my eyes off the road. I stop by Nat and Sam’s house, I hoot the horn. They both rush outside, Sam with Romy in his arms.  
  
“What the hell ?!”  
  
“I’m going, I’m leaving, I’m going to Romania.”  
  
“It’s about time !”, Natasha screams, going back into the house and coming back with her purse, her coat, Sam’s and Romy’s, along with her baby’s seat.  
  
She pushes her husband inside the car, with their daughter and take place in the front seat. I start the car again, following the road to New York. Once at the airport, our little troupe goes to the register desk.  
  
“Hello, I’ve got those two tickets to Bucharest”, I tell the woman behind the counter. “An adult and a child.”  
  
“Do you have passports ?”, she asks.  
  
I fumble for the passports in my bag, handing it to her when I find it. We then pass the security. Nat, Romy and Sam couldn’t go further.  
  
“Promise that you will call us when you land.”  
  
“I promise.”  
  
“If he hurts you, I’m taking the first plane to kick his royal butt.”  
  
“Last call for the passengers for Bucharest. Last call for the passengers to Bucharest.”  
  
“I promise. I love you, so much.”  
  
“We love you too.”  
  
I take Steve’s hand, and we pass the doors. The flight is long, but I can’t sleep when Steve is quietly snoring in his seat. I’m thinking about what’s gonna happen, how Bucky is going to react to Steve and I arrive like this. Yes, becoming the queen of that country terrifies me, as becoming a mother five years ago terrified me, but everything went well.  
  
As soon as we land, I hail a cab at the outside of the airport, asking for the royal palace. The driver leaves us in front of the doorway. Two guards are guarding it. I hand one of them the free pass Bucky let me with the plane tickets, and they let us in. I do the same to the guards of the front door. The castle hasn’t changed, it’s still the same. Leaving our cases there, I take Steve’s hand in mine and make him follow me through the hallway, leading us to the throne room. Steve and I step in, Bucky is passing back and forth.  
  
“Daddy !!!”, Steve screams, running to him, his sadness long gone now.  
  
“Stevie !”, Bucky meets him halfway and lifts him into his arms.  
  
I look at them hugging and I can’t hold my tears. Tears of joy. Bucky puts Steve down, and runs to me.  
  
“You came.”  
  
“I came. I can’t live without you, and Steve can’t live without you. And I have been stupid and afraid, but I’m not anymore. I love you James. I always have, and I always will.”  
  
“I love you Y/N, I always have and I always will. Will you finally do me the honor of becoming my wife ?”, I just nod as an answer.  
  
With those words, he puts his lips on mine.  
  
After a few administrative procedures, and the legitimization of Steve as the rightful prince and heir, Bucky and I finally get married. The fairy tale has an end after all, and a happy one.

 


End file.
